xijuan

Reading the article and then reading the comments. I start to feel very confused. Do we need a huge debate about this? Some of us just want a higher degree and we just want to go to graduate school to do research. For me, I also love the people I have met in graduate school. It may turn out to a wrong decision? But we will never know that because we could not go back and re-make those decisions. Even if somehow one day I knew for certain that going to grad school was a wrong decision, so what? It was something I wanted to try and I tried it. I think I would regret more if I didn't try something I really wanted...

agreed

Love your comment!!! I have met people who gave me weird looks because I want to do a PhD. And she said "what is so good at doing a PhD. A professor can't make more money than me as a small restaurant owner." She just doesn't get it..It is not about the money...sigh

oh my god..That is exactly how I feel about this..

Add to this point. If you apply, then prepare the application as well as you can. I have seen people rushing to finish the application for something as competitive as this the night before the deadline. And of course, in such cases, they are going to lose to the teams that are well-prepared.... Put effort in if you are really up to it.

Communication. Communication. Constructive Communication! Best advice for relationship! Talk to your girlfriend about your concern.

Nice collection!

Agree with you totally! I am not pretending to be humble..It is just there is not so good about me to brag about..I also want to add:

4) I have weaknesses too. If you know all of my weaknesses, you probably won't think so highly of me.

I agree with the skepticism in the other comments. But I still happy to hear the news! We need more research on human brain! The more, the better! How human brain works is still pretty much a mystery..

How much do you love her? How important do you think the relationship is for you? How much do you both value this relationship? Think about those questions..and think about if you should marry her...

Hey! You are at U of T! I am from UBC. I have taken few grad level psych stats courses already. I have learned how to conduct basic regression, factor analysis using R. If you have questions about doing basic survey analysis using R, maybe I can help you out a bit. My contact information is in my profile! But for my own research, doing basic analysis in R probably won't be enough..I want to know more about how to write functions in R, etc.

I just founded that as well!! And I just started going through it today!

If you want to come to Vancouver, I can meet you up and bring you around. You can find my contact info in my profile.

Omg. You made an extremely good point. I need to rethink about my goals based on what you said.

I can really relate myself to this article. I don't think I am as great as the girl in the article. But my mindset is exactly like hers. My friends and teachers keep telling me how smart I am and how much achieved . While I really really appreciate their kind compliment, I found it hard to accept what they say about me. I feel that they may not understand me completely. They don't know all my weaknesses and have not seen how dumb I am at times. I am rarely satisfied with myself because I constantly think about all these people who have achieved more than me. People told me to lower my standards and look at the people who didn't achieve what I have. But lowering my standards make me feel weak and sad, feeling that I can no longer be the person I aspire to be.. So I persist to try harder despite the uncomfortable feelings of not being satisfied. I also start to realize there is no end to this. My goals of past years have been reached but new goals and higher standards have been set along the way. I actually don't like to be this because I can get very frustrated with myself at times. But one again, lowering my standards make feel weak..

I made a spelling mistake for that post but can no longer edit it. It should be 'Any kind of explanation about dinosaurs extinction'

When I read the title, I was also shocked by the word 'confirmed.' Any kind of explanation about dinosaurs explanation should be a theory. We can say 'the new evidence provided support for a theory' but cannot say 'the new evidence confirmed that the theory is the truth.'

I like all the stories about him. It is like seeing him from a different angle every time. Pieces by pieces, I start to see the whole picture. I feel I understand more of him each time. But at the same time, I feel there are more and more things I still don't know about him.

I know many of you are getting tired of articles about him. But I still find this article really interesting!

Taking the exact same course and going the same process of learning!

I think you misunderstood me a bit. I asked that question to suggest exactly what you have said. The way they diagnose people with all the vague criteria is not scientific at all. I completely agree with you. And yes, I am also aware of the variability among practitioners.

It has a down vote mechanism, well only for comments.. But you have to have more than 500 karmas to get the downvote mechanism.

This article is one of the best articles I read about marriage. It pointed out the bad side of marriage: "Anyone who's been in a marriage or observed one closely knows that these relationships can go through long periods of financial strain, sexual frustration, lethargy, and loneliness." But it also pointed out some of most valuable advantages of marriage :" It promises that marriage will make two people kinder, more patient, more forgiving, more creative, more selfless"

Do you know how psychiatrists or clinical psychologists diagnose depression? Have you read the DSM? Do you know how they come up with the criteria for psychiatric disorders in DSM? Do you know the controversies behind DSM? Do you know few decades ago homosexuality was regarded as a mental disorder? Do you know that there are researchers who want to introduce a new "psychiatric disorder" (i.e., hypersexual disorder) in the next edition of DSM for people who have sex more than 7 times a week ?

Here is the criteria for major depression: Diagnostic criteria:

Depressed mood and/or loss of interest or pleasure in life activities for at least 2 weeks and at least five of the following symptoms that cause clinically significant impairment in social, work, or other important areas of functioning almost every day

1. Depressed mood most of the day.

2. Diminished interest or pleasure in all or most activities.

3. Significant unintentional weight loss or gain.

4. Insomnia or sleeping too much.

5. Agitation or psychomotor retardation noticed by others.

6. Fatigue or loss of energy.

7. Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt.

8. Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness.

9. Recurrent thoughts of death (APA, 2000, p. 356).

I am sure everyone has met some of its criteria at some point in their life. Without a real diagnosis, you really can't say if the person has a major depression. Even with a diagnosis, how do you know the doctor is making the right diagnosis with SUCH VAGUE criteria?

Edit: I am very aware of what DanBC has pointed out about the other criteria: i) at least 2 weeks ii) and at least five of the following symptoms iii) clinically significant impairment in social, work, or other important areas of functioning almost every day.

BUT THEN, the question becomes "Why 2 week?" "Why at least five of the symptoms?" Who came up with the numbers? Let me tell you, the DSM committee have a lot of disagreement about those. Those numbers are not some magic numbers that once you pass that threshold, you suddenly become clinical depressed.

I can't agree you more on this! People talk about depression as if it is the only cause of suicide. People talk about the cause of depression as if depression is only caused by mental weakness. Aaron has already left us. Can we just show more understanding, compassion, empathy and sympathy to what has happened to him?

Same experience. In fact, I think most of my college friends have the same experiences. It is hard to find someone who is always on top of his/her work. I kind of get the author's idea. I can probably skim through the course materials more quickly on my own.. But I wouldn't be able to understand and remember the materials to the same extent if I have not done the homework and the exams.

How much a stressor is stressful to a person is subjective. For a psychopath who always had troubles with the law to face longer sentences, he/she probably wouldn't feel as stressful as Aaron did. In Aaron's case, he is NOT ONLY dealing with depressed feelings. He is also dealing with a lot of anger due to the injustice.

I disagree with you. Everyone has moments of weaknesses. Everyone has the potential to become depressed. Depression is caused by a combination of situational and dispositional factors. Let me give you concrete examples. There are people who are a bit prone to depression. These people would be more likely to feel depressed when exposed to stressors which won't trigger major depression in other people. However, when the stressor gets extremely severe, it would trigger depression even in people who are not prone to depression. A classical example of this is soldiers who suffer from PTSD after being in the wars. Most of them would never have such problem if they have not gone to war and have not been exposed to all these atrocities.

I don't want to discuss about why Aaron died. But I can really feel the pain of his girlfriend. I have also been currently struggling with nightmares. I have never realized that dreams can have such an impact in my life. During the day, I would be so busy and thus do not have time to think about the thing I don't want to think about. But every morning before I wake up, I would dream about "the thing".. I especially understand the part where she says that she has to force herself to wake up from the nightmare... I have done that many times as well. But after I wake up, I just have to face the reality ( in Taren's words "the real-life nightmare" ).

I am using Chrome on my Mac. The horizontal rolling is very very laggy. Usually, when I swipe right, I can go back to the previous webpage I was on. But I can't do that with this website.